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Bigten Kikoba

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Evidence shows limited use of routine data to support health actions in lower and middle-income countries. To address that, there are several ongoing efforts to strengthen routine health information systems which are largely crippled by the fragmented nature of the health system. This review determines factors influencing routine data use at different health system levels. We scoped up four literature sources, i.e., PubMed, IEEE Xplore, the Public Library of Science (PLOS), and Google Scholar for the article published between January 2019 and December 2023. Three reviewers independently screened article titles, abstracts, and full text against inclusion and exclusion criteria, following the Arksey and O’Malley and PRISMA framework to guide the review process. We classified our findings into three health system levels: i.e. facility, district, and national/sector-wide. Out of 387 articles retrieved from databases, 41 articles were selected for inclusion, where the majority of the articles (48.8%), were on the health facility level. The study found that factors influencing the use of routine data vary across health system levels, with human resource capacity and friendly data collection tools being more important at the facility level. In contrast, the availability, and capacity to use analytical tools and governance structures were more reported at the district and national levels. Further, capacity building in health information systems, IT infrastructure, and regular supervision, were identified as crucial across all health system levels. We argue for focused interventions to be designed to institutionalize routine data use practices for better healthcare outcomes across health system levels.